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Is There an Effective Way to Throw Away Medical Waste?

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Healthcare facilities produce large amounts of waste annually. However, most hospitals and other healthcare facilities are yet to adopt an effective method of waste disposal. The most common methods of waste disposal are incineration, internal segregation, and containment. Others include disinfection, shredding, and grinding. Is there an effective method of waste disposal?

An effective waste disposal method is the one that destroys infectious waste materials and reduces the volume and weight of the waste in the medical waste stream. Therefore, which is the most effective method among all the above methods?  Based on the three parameters of detoxification, weight reduction, and volume reduction, incineration is the most effective method of waste disposal. This method destroys the highest percentage of medical waste components and can recover more energy from waste streams.

What does incineration entail?Incineration involves the burning of both the infectious and non-infectious medical wastes using incinerators such as the rotary kiln, controlled air, and excess air incinerators.

The controlled air unit incinerator is the most common one.The effectiveness of this method is supported by the high waste mass and volume reductions of up to 95%. Additionally, pathogenic wastes are sterilized, and the infectious waste is converted to innocuous ash, which can be used for providing waste heat recovery. 

Final Thought

There are several methods of throwing away medical wastes, but the effectiveness of each method depends on the volume and weight reductions as well as detoxification levels. Incineration is the most effective waste disposal method based on these parameters.